Yep, These Things Do Happen
by The Blue Heron
Summary: From season 1, to season whatever. We'll see. 46 or so passengers survived, yes? Well, this is the story of a passenger unnamed in the series. Who does she meet? What adventures does she have? I guess you'll have to find out. ON HIATUS
1. Prologue: The Crash

**Disclaimer: I do not own Lost. I only own my character who's point of view this story is written in. Enjoy! :) **

* * *

**Prologue: The Crash**

It seemed like a fairly normal day. Days always seem normal until something abnormal happens. That's just how it goes. I'd gotten onto the plane expecting to have a peaceful flight to my intended destination.

Actually, that's not completely true. I've never liked flying, and tend toward the side of hating it. Heights disturb me greatly, and ever since the whole issue of terrorists crashing planes, I've made a point of not setting foot in an airport or on a plane. For the second time, though, I had no choice. But that's a different story for another time.

I was nervous even just standing in the airport. By the time I boarded the plane, my hands were shaking and I was practically hyperventilating. The other passengers eyed me nervously and moved slightly away from me as I passed. Whatever. I finally located my seat and plopped myself down into it, relieved that if anyone else was supposed to sit in the seat next to mine, whoever it was seemed disinclined to do so. Lucky for me. Along with hating heights, I also suffer from mild claustrophobia. Yeah, yeah, yeah, call me a wimp. Go ahead.

After what seemed like hours of anticipation for the plane to finally start going and lift off the ground, we started to move. I felt my jaw lock, same as it always does when I freak out, and closed my eyes. When the plane finally stopped climbing and leveled out, I reached into my backpack and pulled out my MP3 player. I turned the volume up high enough to block out all other noise but not so far as to make me go deaf. Then I decided to people-watch.

It's fun, people-watching. I've always enjoyed it, and it takes a long time for it to get tiring. People change so much and there's so much to their actions and reactions that it's almost like watching a movie. I looked around at the other passengers and tried to decipher their moods. Some looked nervous, some looked bored and some even looked angry. I couldn't help but notice one cute guy with piercing eyes. He was sitting next to a blonde who I assumed must be his girlfriend.

_Too bad,_ I thought idly. _Except that h__e's kind of too old for me anyways. _

I had continued observing in this manner for quite a while when all of the sudden the plane started shaking.

Crap.

"Turbulence," one of the passengers observed.

A man who seemed slightly distressed pushed past the passengers down the aisle towards the restroom at the back. The steward and stewardess followed him.

_What's he doing? _I wondered. _He must be crazy._

The turbulence worsened and I started to worry.

_It's going to be fine, we'll be fine, nothing's going to happen, don't be ridiculous!_ I scolded myself.

Ha. Not so much. No sooner had the thought crossed my mind than I heard a huge screeching sound. I freaked.

I'm not quite sure what happened next. The sensation, yes. The actual occurrence, no. It reminded me of when my family had gotten into a car accident a couple years ago. It was like sound was whooshing past my ears and everything went in slow motion but really fast at the same time, you know? I swear even my blood stopped. I know my breathing did. And then everything happened so quickly that the next thing I knew half the plane was gone and we were plummeting toward the ground. My stomach dropped like on a roller coaster ride, except that this wasn't a roller coaster and it sure wasn't fun. Then my head hit something hard and the world went black.

I woke up to screaming and the sound of the plane's engine. I was lying on my back on…sand? At least it wasn't water. Did I mention that I hate water, too? Yeah. Add it to the list. To my surprise, I could move.

Neck, good. Legs, good. Arms, good. Internal organs? They felt okay, considering the scrambling they'd just gone through. Had I forgotten anything? Oh, yeah. My head. Duh. I would forget that, wouldn't I? Not so lucky there. I felt my forehead and looked at my hand. It came away covered in blood. That would explain why everything had a reddish tinge. A cut above my eyebrow was bleeding down into my eyes and blurring my vision. Gross.

I knew I wasn't thinking rationally. I mean, what sane person thinks that it's gross to be bleeding into their eyes when they've just survived a plane crash from inconceivable heights? I think I still had the sort of stunned, out-of-the world sensation that this couldn't be happening to me. It had to be a dream. I so wish.

Either way, I gingerly picked myself up off the beach – oh, yeah, did I mention that we'd landed on a beach? – and made my way towards the noise.

_It's just a dream, it's just a dream,_ I remember repeating to myself desperately.

I reached the crash site in time to see everyone running around hysterically. Or standing in shock. A pregnant woman screamed. The cute guy I'd noticed earlier was bending over a woman and giving her CPR. The man who'd been heading towards the restrooms wandered around aimlessly. A man shouted an alarm to stay away from the engines, and I looked over just in time to see a passenger standing in front of them turn towards him and be pulled into the fan blades. I watched, stunned and unable to move, as the section exploded.

"Get out of the way!" someone shouted at me, and two seconds later I was pulled to safety, and not a moment too soon. It was the man who'd been shouting orders earlier. He seemed to be trying to be everywhere at once.

"Stay here," he commanded.

"But I can help," I protested. I was finally getting a hold of the situation.

"All right. Go help him with the pregnant girl," he pointed towards a large man with bushy hair who was standing and looking around helplessly.

I headed over and tried to calm the girl down. Yeah, like I was so calm myself. Not. But apparently I faked it well enough that she stopped screaming enough that the large guy – Hurley, he said he was called – and I could help her move away from the plane.

Suddenly the man showed up again. He yelled something about the plane. We looked up to see the wing above us bending down. It seemed perilously close to snapping. It would crush us without a doubt. The man rushed up and pulled us out of the way. The blast of the explosion as the wing crashed down threw us onto the sand.

And then it was over. I mean, everyone was still freaking out and all, but the explosions seemed to be over.

So that's how I ended up on this…place. I don't even know where we are. It's an island. It's unpopulated. We're stuck. I'm pretty sure it's in the middle of nowhere. I'm also pretty sure that no one knows where we are.

This is going to be fun.

Just a little bit of sarcasm there. Just a little.

* * *

**So, this is my first Lost fanfic. I just recently started watching this show and so far I've only seen bits and pieces of the first series. I'm re-watching it so I get the whole story, though. Anyways. Thanks for reading! :) **


	2. What Do We Do Now?

**Author's note: I just wanted to thank miflaw0119 for the review. Just to let you know, that totally made my day! :) Boone's my favorite character, too, or one of them, at least. :) **

* * *

**What Do We Do Now?**

The immediate crisis appeared to be over. Of course, there was still the issue that we were stranded on an isolated, unpopulated island with nothing but what was left of the plane and what little that was on it that had survived. But other than that, it was all good. You could even call it peaceful, compared to beforehand. People were still panicking, but not to the same extent as they had previously, and I'm not sure that the gravity of the situation had quite hit them yet. I figured that it would pretty soon, though, and I wasn't sure I wanted to be around when that happened.

I saw the man who had taken control rummaging through a bag before running into a secluded section of trees. He disappeared from sight.

"Hurley! Hey, Hurley!" I finally got his attention.

"Yeah?"

"His name. Do you know that guy's name?" I asked.

"I think he said it was Jack," he answered.

"Okay. Thanks, dude." He wasn't going to get away without some explaining. Jack, I mean. It already looked like he was going to take on the role of leader here, so just for my own peace of mind, I wanted to make sure he was qualified. There's little worse than a leader who can't lead. From his display earlier, though, to his credit, he did seem to be able to act logically under pressure quite well. But then again, I've been told that I do, too, but I know that I don't always. Nothing is certain.

Anyways, I was about to follow him when the cute guy showed up again. Call me an idiot, but there was no way that I was going to ignore him just to go check on the fellow in charge. He could wait.

"Hey, have you seen Shannon?" he asked.

"Shannon? The one you were with, the blonde one?" I tried to remember. Yep, I'd seen her. Standing in the middle of the wreckage screaming her head off. Who knows how she'd managed not to get hit.

"Yeah, that's her," he replied.

I nodded. "Thought so. Okay, I'm pretty sure I saw her last over in that direction." I gestured toward the other side of the plane, in the opposite direction of Jack and the trees.

"Thanks." He started to head over in the general area, but then turned back. "I'm Boone, by the way."

"Nice to meet you, Boone. I'm Em."

He stuck out his hand, and I shook it.

"Nice to meet you, too, Em. Short for Emily?"

I winced. "Emma, actually." For some reason, people always associated the name Emma with being an airhead, though I'm not quite sure why. My mum had told me that I was kinda sorta named after Emma from Jane Austen's book, which I didn't mind at all. Jane Austen's a great writer. Around the time that freshman year started, though, I'd decided to go by Em. It stuck pretty quickly. I don't know why. I mean, Emma's only two syllables, so it can't be that hard to say. Em's just sort of short. We lip-lazy Americans. Always go for the easiest thing to say. I don't even know.

Boone didn't seem to think anything of it, though. He smiled. Unless that was a bad thing, but somehow I couldn't imagine that being true.

"Well, I've got to go find her. If you see her before I do, can you tell her I'm looking for her?"

"Sure, no problem." Of course I would. Silly man. I would have done that even if he hadn't requested it. But now I definitely would.

"Thanks." He started walking in the direction that I had pointed out for him.

"See ya," I said and went in the opposite direction. I really did have some questions for the guy in the trees. Jack, right?

Okay, so one thing about me that bugs some people is that if something has gone wrong, and sometimes even if something hasn't, I have to personally make sure that everything's all good and everything's under control. I'm not into being a leader that much myself, but if no one else is willing to step up, I'll take it all in hand. Not that that would be any good in this case. Seriously, who would listen to a seventeen year old girl? Not many people. So I was really glad that Jack seemed to be taking it all in his stride.

I reached the trees only to find him kneeling on the ground with a dark-haired woman stitching up a gash in his side. Huh. Hadn't even factored that into the equation. I'm not sure what I thought he was doing, going off to die or something? Actually, I was kind of afraid that he was going to try to be a hero and go off on his own and try to find other people and leave us all on our own without direction. Call me a cynic, but people aren't exactly brilliant at all times and rarely look at all sides of a problem.

Anyways, I decided that it would probably be best for me to stay out of the way until they were finished. The woman looked like she was trying really hard not to cry, gag, or pass out, all at the same time. Distracting her probably wouldn't turn out so well. I leaned against a tree silently to wait. Neither of them noticed me standing there, but I was good with that.

"I might throw up on you," the woman warned.

Real confidence building, there.

But Jack shook his head. "No, no, you're doing fine." He was definitely in pain, though.

She looked at him. Bad idea. She was supposed to be concentrating on sewing him back up, not chatting. Keep your mind on the game, girl.

"You don't seem afraid at all," she stated. "I don't understand that."

On second thought, that was a pretty good observation. Nevermind, maybe she was really good at multitasking, even when she didn't really know what she was doing. For sewing him back up, I mean.

"Well," Jack considered. "Fear is sort of an odd thing." He paused. "When I was in residency, my first solo procedure was a spinal surgery on a sixteen year old kid, a girl. And at the end, after thirteen hours I was closing her up, and I, I accidently ripped her dural sack."

Residency, hm? He was a doctor, then. I must say, if we had to be stuck on an island, having a doctor would be a good thing.

The woman gulped.

He continued. "Shredded the base of the spine where all the nerves come together. Membrane as thin as tissue. So it ripped open. The nerves just spilled out of her like angel hair pasta." He shook his head at the memory.

But really? Her nerves spilled out of her? I didn't know that was even possible. Call me a skeptic, but seriously? I'm no doctor, so I guess I could be wrong, but I was under the impression that nerves couldn't do any such thing. I made a mental note to look that up on the computer when I got back to civilization. If we ever got back to civilization. I tuned back in.

"Spinal fluid was flowing out of her, and the terror was so..." he searched for the right word, "crazy. So real. And I knew I had to deal with it. So I just made a choice. I let the fear in, let it take over, let it do it's thing, but only for five seconds, that's all I was going to give it. So I started to count. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. And it was gone. I went back to work, sewed her up, and she was fine."

"If that had been me," the woman said, "I would have run for the door."

Jack shook his head again. "No, I don't think that's true. You're not running now."

I was tired of waiting and decided to step in. The woman seemed to be done, so there was no worry of her messing up anymore.

"Excuse me," I said and stepped forward. Jack looked up while the woman busied herself with putting away the needle and thread.

"Yes?" he said.

How was I going to say this? Maybe my general rule of listen and learn was better than actual questions. What was I going to do, go like, "Hey, dude, so I hear you're in charge now"? I don't think so. The best theory now seemed to be to cut to the chase without actually…well, cutting to the chase.

"You handled everything pretty well back there," I said.

"You were the girl who helped Hurley, and the pregnant girl," he realized.

I nodded. "Yep, that was me." That was I, I mentally corrected myself. Did I mention that I'm a grammar freak?

"You did a good job out there. You kept your cool," he told me.

Did I really? Or was he just trying to keep me from freaking out like when he told the woman his little fear anecdote? Whatever, it didn't really matter. I was learning about how he was going to go about leading us already. It's always good to know a person's leadership tactics. Then you can tell when they're lying to you and whether that's a good thing or a bad thing.

"I'm Em, by the way," I introduced myself.

"I'm Kate," the woman broke in.

"Nice to meet you, Kate," I said.

"I'm Jack," Jack said, but I wasn't going to tell him that I already knew that.

"Nice to meet you, Jack. Well, if either of you need anything, just tell me and I shall do my best to assist."

To my surprise, both of them seemed to take me seriously. Maybe having crashed on an island changes how you look at people. Hm. That was another good thing to know.

So, I guess I learned what I came for. I was pretty sure that Jack would turn out to be a good leader. He would certainly be good at keeping up morale, and that might be the most important thing to keep us all from turning against each other. I must admit, though, Kate slightly worried me. I wasn't quite sure why, and I wasn't going to treat her any differently because of it, but something seemed a little strange. It was one of those things where something was on the tip of my memory, but I just couldn't remember it. Oh well. It would come to me eventually.

So now I've met what, five people out of forty some? I'd met Hurley, who seemed to be nice enough. I'd met the cute guy, Boone, which was definitely a plus. I'd found out the name of the blonde one, Shannon, though I hadn't technically met her yet. And then of course there were Jack and Kate.

Thirty some more to go. I wanted to meet everyone on this island. Or at least become familiar with their faces, and if I could, their names. Who knows when that information might come in handy? It's always good to be prepared.

* * *

**Hope you enjoyed it! Thanks for reading! **


	3. Day's End

**Day's End**

Night fell. The passengers had formed into little groups and many were sitting around individual campfires. It seemed as good a time to go around and meet people as any. I wandered around for a while, stopping to introduce myself and chat for a few minutes before moving on. After a while, though, I realized exactly how exhausted I was. Today had hardly been an easy day, if you know what I mean.

I passed by a young man who appeared to be drawing on his fingers. Well, not exactly on his fingers, but on cloth that he had wrapped around each finger almost like a ring.

"You'd think they would have come by now," his companion said.

The other pulled off his hood and looked at him, surprised. "What?" I noticed that he had a British accent.

"Anyone," his friend replied.

And so reality hits.

"'Scuse me," I said. "Mind if I warm my hands by your fire here for a second?"

"Of course," the Arab-looking one said.

I settled down into a sitting position and held my hands over the fire.

"What've you got there?" I nodded towards the British man's fingers.

"What? Oh." He held up his hands towards me, and I could see letters written on the cloth.

"F, a, t, e. Fate," I said. "Very…cool. I'm Em, by the way."

"I'm Charlie. And this here is…"

"Sayid," the other said.

"Nice to meet you both. Sorry, I'm just trying to sort of, you know, meet people, make sure everyone's okay," I explained. I'd already had quite a few people look at me as if they were wondering why on earth I was talking to them.

"No need to apologize," Sayid said.

After talking to them for a couple minutes, I stood. "Well, I think I'd better get going. See ya."

I left to wander around some more. All right, I'll admit it. I wasn't really walking around trying to meet people. I mean, I was, but most of the reason was that I really didn't know anybody on this island. Maybe it sounds ridiculous, but it was almost kind of awkward. I didn't really want to go off by myself because if anything happened, like some sort of animal came to get me or something, I would be so dead. There's no way I could defend myself. So I wanted to stay around people. I was kind of hoping that I would meet someone that I could stay with, but so far that wasn't happening.

I almost ran into a girl sitting on the ground and painting her toenails. She obviously wasn't dealing with reality.

"Sorry," I apologized.

"Watch where you're going," she said rudely before returning to her nails.

That's when I recognized her. It was Shannon.

"Hey," a voice behind me said, and Boone walked up and sat down across from her.

"I see you found her, then," I said.

"Yeah, I did. Take a seat," he offered.

"Thanks." I sat.

Boone held a candy bar out to Shannon. She didn't even look at it.

"As if I'm going to start eating chocolate," she scoffed.

"Shannon, we might be here for a while." Boone sounded as if he were explaining it to a two year old.

"The plane had a black box, idiot. They know exactly where we are, they're coming," she said impatiently.

Boone shook his head. He obviously didn't think that she was dealing with reality, either.

"I'll eat on the rescue boat," Shannon said, almost as if to mollify him, but retaining her arrogant tone.

Boone looked at her skeptically.

"I'll eat on the rescue boat!" she said again, more sharply this time.

He didn't answer. Instead, he held the candy bar out towards me. I shook my head.

"No thanks." For some reason, chocolate didn't sound particularly good right now. Pizza, on the other hand, would have been nice, but I had a feeling I wouldn't be getting that for a while.

Shannon smirked, and Boone resentfully unwrapped the candy and took a bite out of it himself. Honestly, the whole situation confused me. I could have sworn that they were boyfriend/girlfriend, but they were definitely not acting like it right now. Actually, they were acting more like…

"So, I take it you've met my brother already, then?" Shannon asked. She looked at me in a slightly more friendly manner than before. Maybe my refusal of the candy bar was more significant than I'd thought.

Hang on a minute. Her brother?

"Wait, so you two are brother and sister?" I looked back and forth at them. They didn't look at all alike, but I didn't want to say anything. That might be awkward. I needn't have worried, though, because Shannon answered my unasked question anyways.

"Step," she said. "That's why we don't look anything alike. What did you think we were, dating?" She laughed, but a strange look passed over Boone's face and disappeared before I could be certain that it was ever there. Hm. Maybe they got that a lot.

This was getting slightly awkward. Now seemed like a good time to leave. For what felt like the millionth time tonight, I got up and bid them farewell and wandered off again. Boone barely glanced up from staring at the fire and nodded briefly when I left. I must say, he was a moody one. But what do I know. I thought that they were dating and they're actually siblings. Step-siblings, but still.

It was time to give up. I decided to check on one more person before going off somewhere. I still didn't know where. I mean, I hate to say it, but I know nothing about surviving. I mean, I can't even make my own fire. I know, it's pathetic. I've gone camping and all, but my dad was always the one in charge of that. I've always been the more stay at home and read a book, academic type. My brother was always the adventurous one. He was really into sports and stuff like that. He always made fun of my lack of muscle and lack of interest in anything that involved physical exertion.

Not that I didn't like camping. I loved it. I loved hiking, too. I don't know, I guess I'm sort of a weird mixture. When my family used to go hiking, I would always be much more adventurous than otherwise. I _would_ follow that trail, I _would _forge through those bushes, I _would_ do things that other girls wouldn't because they were too afraid of hurting themselves or getting stuck or some such thing.

So that's me. Not a girly girl in any way, shape, or form, but most definitely not a tomboy either. I'm just somewhere in the middle. I'm just sort of useless when it comes to either extent. There is one thing, though. I'm willing to learn, and I'm willing to adapt according to the situation. I hate change, but in the end, I adjust. Right here, right now, was more than just a change, though. There was no "change" to hate, just that fact that I was all alone. That wasn't particularly unusual, either, but here it mattered more.

Unfortunately, I also have my pride. There was no way I was going to ask someone to help me. I figured I'd learn on my own. I hoped that the self-preservation instinct that I had always possessed would help me there.

Before going off on my own to who knows where, I figured it would be a good idea to check on the pregnant girl and see how she was doing. It didn't take long to find her. She was sitting on a piece of metal from the plane next to a fire that someone must have started for her.

"Hey," I said. "Mind if I sit here?"

"Sure."

"Thanks. How are you doing?"

She sighed. "I'm all right. It's kind of scary, though."

"Yeah, no kidding."

My end of the "seat" lifted up into the air, and I looked over to see Hurley stepping onto the other end. He sat.

"Hungry?" he asked her.

"Yeah, thanks."

He handed her some foil-wrapped food.

"Any more, you know, baby stuff?" he asked.

"No, I'm…I'm okay."

Hurley handed her another foil package. "Well, hang in there," he said and left.

"Yeah, you too," she replied. She started to unwrap it and before she had finished, he came back and set another on her lap. How much food did he think she needed?

The piece of metal that we were sitting on evened out again.

"Would you like some?" she asked me.

"Ah, nah, I already ate. Thanks, though. I'm Em, by the way."

"I'm Claire."

"So you're doing all right, then? How far along are you? If it's not rude to ask," I added.

"Around eight months," she smiled.

"That's cool." Okay, so I'm not the greatest conversationalist ever. Who says "that's cool" when someone says how pregnant they are? Whatever.

"Do you have anywhere to stay?" Claire asked.

"Not really, no," I admitted.

"I didn't think so. I saw you wandering around earlier."

Oh.

"Yeah."

"Would you like to stay here? It would be kind of nice to have the company."

I looked at her carefully to see if she was serious or if she was just being polite. If it were the latter, I would just as politely decline. She seemed to mean it, though.

"That would be great. Thanks. I was kind of wondering where I was going to go. I'm not the most daring person ever in situations like this," I admitted.

"That's all right. Neither am I," Claire agreed.

Maybe I'd made a friend, and as childish as that may sound, on this island that was going to be really nice. I mean, you don't really think about what someone would do, and it might seem like having a friend wouldn't matter, but it does. It's more complicated than just going off and making camp and functioning with other people who you don't need. The reality is that you do need people and you do need help and you do need friendship. Without those, I have a feeling that surviving here would be a lot harder than with them.

Suddenly a loud crashing noise came from the forest. Not crashing as in when the plane crashed, but crashing as in…well, crashing. I guess crushing would work, too. Either way, whatever you want to call it, there was a menacing noise coming from the forest. Everyone was immediately alert and many got up from their fires to look toward the direction of the noise. I don't think anyone knew what the source of the noise was. On closer observation, though, it seemed almost like a ginormous sort of growl. That worried me. No, that more than worried me. That disturbed me greatly.

Claire stood and looked around.

"Did anybody see that?" she asked incredulously.

"Yeah," Hurley said slowly. He seemed, I don't know, not exactly stunned but not exactly like he had no problem with the noise either.

Boone got up and ran towards the noise, which was pretty much where everyone was collecting. Facing the trees, that is. If you think about it, that's not exactly the greatest idea ever. If that really was a growl or a roar or whatever, it must have come from something really, really, exceedingly big, and something that really, really, exceedingly big could eat all of us in a matter of seconds.

"Boone!" Shannon shouted after him. Apparently she didn't think it was such a good idea, either.

And then the trees fell. At least, that's what it looked like. It looked like a bunch of trees were knocked over. I guess I could be wrong, since it was dark, but that's what it seemed like. That's when I joined the others. I couldn't help it. I had to see what was going on.

"Terrific," Charlie muttered.

"That just about sums it up," I muttered in response.

Needless to say, I didn't sleep very well that night.


	4. Now What was that Noise Again?

**Author's note: miflaw0119: I don't think I've said Em's age yet. I'll explain that in probably the next chapter, though. I'm glad you like it so far! :) **

* * *

**Now What Was That Noise Again?**

I awoke in the morning from an uneasy sleep. I got up and stretched. Yep, still alive, and from the looks of it, everyone else was, too. That was good. I hadn't slept through any midnight snacks from whatever beasty was making that sound. Yeah, 'cause that was so likely. Well, the beasty snacking wasn't unlikely, but my sleeping through it would be. Anyways.

"Hey, Em!"

I turned toward the voice. It was Boone. Cool. I waved and headed on over to join them. He was sitting in a circle with Shannon, Sayid, Charlie, and a man and a little boy. I recognized the latter two vaguely from the confusion yesterday, but I don't think that I talked to them during my rounds last night.

"Hey, guys," I greeted them. Oh, yeah, just to tell you, I use the word "guys" as a general term.

"Does anyone have any sunblock?" Charlie asked.

"I do," Shannon answered. No surprise there. She rummaged around in her bag and handed it to Charlie.

"Hey, mind if I use some, too?" I asked. Red hair = fair skin= horrible sunburn. I had brought some sunscreen of my own, but as of right now I had no idea where my bag was. It would probably be a good idea to look for it sooner rather than later. I hoped that it had survived.

"Sure, go ahead."

"Thanks."

"So, I was just looking inside the fuselage. It's pretty grim in there," Hurley said. I hadn't seen him come over. "You think we should do something about the…" he paused and looked at the kid. "B-o-d-y-s?"

Bodys? What the heck was a bodys? Charlie looked as confused as I felt.

"What are you spelling, man, bodies?" the black man asked.

Ohhhhhhhhh. That made a lot more sense. I should have caught that.

"B-o-d-i-e-s," his kid spelled. So much for keeping him unsuspecting of what was going on. How old was he, ten? He was handling this whole thing pretty well.

"That sounds like a good idea," Sayid agreed.

Boone looked like the idea didn't appeal to him very much. I couldn't blame him there. I didn't want to have to deal with them either, but something had to be done. Unbidden, the memory of the man who had been sucked into the fanblades sprang into my mind, and I tried not to gag. I still couldn't believe that that had happened. It seemed so unreal, like something that would happen in a movie but not in real life.

"No, they'll deal with it when they get here," Shannon argued.

Jack walked up and squatted down. "Hey, we're going to go look for the cockpit, see if we can find a transceiver to send a distress signal, help the rescue team." He turned to Boone. "We're going to need to keep an eye on the wounded."

Boone nodded.

"If the guy in the suit wakes up, try to keep him calm, but don't let him remove that piece of shrapnel. You understand?" Jack instructed.

"Yeah," Boone answered. "Got it. What about the guy with the leg, with the tourniquet?"

"I stopped the bleeding and took it off last night. He should be all right."

"Yeah, cool. Good job."

I happened to glance over at Charlie. He had an almost calculating look on his face. That's when I remembered. He was the guy who had been rushing down the aisle toward the restroom around the time that the turbulence started. Hm. Interesting. I still wonder what that was all about.

Suddenly he got up. Charlie, that is.

"I'll come with," he volunteered. "I want to help."

Jack shook his head and rose as well. "Nah, I don't need any more help."

"No, it's cool, I don't really feel like standing still, so," Charlie protested.

Jack didn't argue. Apparently Charlie took that as an okay.

"Excellent." He smiled.

What was that all about? First he's rushing toward the restrooms during the turbulence – and don't forget the steward and stewardess chasing after him – and now he seemed particularly eager to go search for the rest of the plane. I knew I didn't want to go out there. Who knows what was hiding in the trees? I opted for helping Boone watch the wounded.

You know the weird thing? I hate blood and guts and all that sort of thing. I wanted to become a nurse when I was younger, but then I realized that I wouldn't be able to deal with all the blood. I used to get bloody noses all the time, but that's about all I could handle. Anything worse, I would just about pass out. Right now, though, it was different. I don't know why. Maybe it was the fact that this was real and I was going to have to deal with it whether I wanted to or not.

At the same time, I could totally apply that to going off into the trees or wherever the plane pieces were. Plus, if I went, I could find out what Charlie was up to. I don't think anyone suspected anything, least of all Jack. Now might be a good chance to do some investigating. I made up my mind and jumped up and started after them.

"Wait, you're going with them?" Boone asked, surprised. For a second I thought I saw a flicker of something in his eyes. What? Respect? Questioning my insanity? Er, sanity? Maybe a little bit of both?

"Yeah. Might as well try to do something useful," I replied.

"It's dangerous out there," Shannon informed me helpfully.

"Yeah, I know. But it could be just as dangerous here. We don't know." I was crazy. I knew I was crazy. But at the same time…I don't even know. I don't really know why I wanted to go. None of this made sense.

"You take care of yourself, all right." Boone said it more as an order than a question.

I was slightly taken aback. "Of course. I'll be fine."

It was sweet of him to be concerned, though. For a moment I regretted my decision, but I couldn't back out now. My stupid pride was getting in the way again. For a second the thought occurred to me that I actually could die out there. No kidding. And then I'd be dead and I'd never have a chance to get off this island and I'd never see Boone again…yeah. I pushed my doubts aside and headed after the others.

* * *

**Hope you enjoyed it! Sorry, I know this chapter is a little shorter. Thanks for reading! :) **


	5. So That's Who He Is

**So That's Who He Is**

They had made it a little bit further than I thought. Make that quite a lot further. By the time I caught up to them, I had run through a section of the trees all by my onesies and practically scared myself to death. Seriously, even the slightest noise startled me. I think I startled myself more than once, even though I tried to be as quiet as I could. Didn't exactly want to alert anything as to where I was, if you know what I mean. Offering myself up for beasty chow doesn't exactly fall under the category of fun.

When I did reach the three, I was not greeted with great enthusiasm. I hardly expected that I would be, but it was still slightly irritating. I mean, I'm not an invalid, and I can take care of myself. I told you that I'm good at adapting to situations according to necessity.

Anyways, the first thing that Jack said when I showed up was a miffed, "What are you doing here?"

"I figured that I'd come along to help, see what I could see, find what I could find. You know, that sort of thing," I answered, equally miffed, except that I didn't let it show.

"This isn't a game, Em," Kate said.

"Yeah, I know," I said seriously. "But I want to help. I want to do some good around here."

"You can do just as much good back at the camp," Jack said. "I don't want to have to be responsible for your getting hurt."

Yeah, 'cause it was imperative that I get hurt. Not. It wasn't a given. I could be perfectly fine.

"You don't need to be responsible for me. It won't be on your conscience. Kate and Charles are just as likely to get hurt as I am, but they're here too," I argued.

"But we're…" At a warning glance from Jack, Kate stopped.

"How old are you, Em?" he asked carefully. "Fourteen? Fifteen?"

I snorted. I couldn't help it.

"I get that a lot," I told them. "I'm seventeen. I know I look younger than I really am, but that doesn't make me younger mentally, regardless of what some people may believe."

The last part came out rather more pointedly than I intended it to. But whatever. It really did get on my nerves.

"I can take care of myself!" I insisted. "I'll be fine. Besides, if I'm so incapable, then you wouldn't want me to have to find my way back all by myself then, would you?"

It probably didn't help that I was a girl. Ugh. I had a feeling that my argument was kind of backfiring and making me look slightly immature, but at this point I had to prove myself. Maybe that's immature, too. Maybe I'm just really insecure. But if I was going to get by on this island, I had to step out of my comfort zone and learn how to fend for myself. If all that isn't confusing, then I don't know what is.

Jack swallowed it, though. Kate looked displeased. I don't know why she has a problem with me, but she seems to. Charlie was the only one who looked sympathetic. Not sympathetic as in feeling sorry for me, but sympathetic as in he knew what I meant. Maybe empathetic would be a better word. Jack hadn't exactly wanted him to come, either. I got the feeling that the general consensus was that Charlie was incompetent. I also got the feeling that that was the general consensus concerning me as well. It was like we were the two unpopulars trying to fit in with the cool kids. I wonder which group Boone fit in. Jack seemed to think that he was competent enough, though, since he gave him hospital duty. Boone didn't seem to think I was incompetent, at least. But that's neither here nor there.

"All right," Jack sighed.

Like I said, Kate looked displeased. We walked in silence for a while until we came into out of the brush into a large, grassy, hilly area. It was actually a rather pretty view.

"Can I ask you something?" Kate attempted to start a conversation.

"Me? I'd be thrilled," Charlie answered. "I've been waiting fo…" he stopped.

"Have we ever met anywhere?"

Charlie smiled smugly. "No. That'd be unlikely. But I look familiar, right?"

"Yeah," Kate mused.

"Can't quite place it?" He sounded more self-satisfied by the minute.

"No, I can't." She was starting to sound slightly impatient. Now I was the one smirking.

"Yeah. I think I know."

"You do?" Kate asked skeptically.

"_You all, everybody_," he sang. "_You all, everybody._ You've never heard that song?" He sounded incredulous.

"I've heard it, I just don't know what…"

"That's us!" Charlie interrupted. "Drive Shaft. Look, the ring." He held out his hand. "Second tour of Finland. You've never heard of Drive Shaft?"

"The band?"

"Yeah, the band!"

"_You_ were in Drive Shaft?" Kate didn't believe him. Her emphasis on the "you" made that much obvious.

"I _am_ in Drive Shaft. I play bass."

"Are you serious?"

Yep. He was serious. Don't kick down the rock star. I tried not to laugh. Not that I had heard of Drive Shaft, either, but that didn't mean anything. I didn't really get into music that much until a couple years ago, and I still haven't heard of a lot of bands, the fact of which my friend never fails to remind me.

"Yeah, Charlie, I do track three…"

And they were off. Or at least Charlie was off and running. I got lost right around there. I had no idea what on earth they were talking about.

Just then Jack came up, or back, I suppose, probably to see why on earth we were taking so long.

"Hey," he started, but Kate interrupted.

"Have you ever heard of Drive Shaft?" she asked him.

"_You all, everybody_," Charlie prompted, and Kate grinned. "_You all…ev…body…_" he stopped when Jack shook his head.

"We've got to keep moving," he said.

Charlie seemed slightly crushed. Apparently his involvement in the band was a touchy subject. It makes sense, I suppose. If I were in a band, I would want to be recognized, and an obvious lack of interest in it wouldn't thrill my heart.

"They were good," Kate said before catching up with Jack.

"They _are_ good," Charlie agreed. I don't think the "they" and the past tense escaped him, either.

We started walking again.

"Good together," he continued. "We're in the middle of a comeback." His voice rose at the end of the sentence.

For his sake, I hoped that they were.

* * *

**I hope you enjoyed it! I know that for the past couple chapters, nothing really major has happened, but it'll come. Don't worry. Thanks for reading! :) **


	6. And Then

**Author's Note: miflaw0119:Haha, nice! :) Yeah, Em will have a flashback, almost definitely more than one, but I'm not quite sure when yet. Hopefully pretty soon, though, maybe even the next chapter. I'm glad you think I'm keeping them all in character (one of my greatest fears is that I'll write someone out of character and it'll all fail :/). And no worries, I love long reviews! :) I'm so sorry I haven't updated for so long, though! I'm hoping to update more often now. :) **

* * *

**And Then…**

Oh, yeah, that's right. We won't ever know unless we get back to civilization. Kind of forgot about that part. Silly me.

I'm not sure how much further we walked before we reached an area full of tall, green, grasslike stuff. Really specific, right? I know. Anyways, right about then, it started to rain, and by rain I mean drenched-within-about-two-seconds-due-to-gallons-of-water-falling-from-the-sky, or something like that. It was pretty intense. Charlie cowered (okay, so maybe "cowered" is too harsh a word) from the downpour, but not surprisingly Jack and Kate seemed fairly unaffected. I have a feeling I was somewhere in between there. I mean, I'm used to rain. It rains a lot where I'm from, and I mean a lot. My friends and I point and laugh at people using umbrellas. Okay, so maybe we don't point and laugh, but we don't exactly use umbrellas, either. One of my friends did catch cold once, though, and it then turned into pneumonia, but that's not the point. Honestly, I actually kind of like rain. I don't even mind getting wet. The annoying part is the aftermath, when your jeans are soaked and start becoming uncomfortable and suddenly all you want is a nice warm towel to dry off with and a nice warm set of clothes to change into. I had a feeling that wasn't going to happen anytime soon, though.

Anyways, a couple seconds into the deluge, Charlie asked, "Hey, guys, is this normal? Kinda, day turning into night, end of the world type of weather…guys? "

Like any of us would know. Not so much. Back where I was from, even though it rained a lot, it was never really in random torrents like this. We were probably more in the tropics sort of area at this point, though, and I'd heard of loads of rain happening like this. At least I think I'd heard of stuff like this, but I'm not completely sure.

Finally, with thunder booming overhead and the rain continuing to soak us, we entered a small clearing. Well, comparatively it was a clearing. Plants still filled the area. They just weren't quite so tall anymore. Some of them were, of course, but we weren't exactly walking in person-high grass anymore, either.

That's when it hit me, though, the thought that with all the thunder and the rain drowning out all other noise, big beastie-buddy could sneak up on us without anyone suspecting a thing. I guess the knocking over of trees would give us a clue, but still. The idea disturbed me greatly. I shuddered, but fortunately no one noticed. Any noticeable misgivings on my part wouldn't exactly help my case, and I didn't need even more, how can I put it? lack of faith in my abilities.

"Whoa!" Oops. I almost ran into Charlie then, and a few seconds later I tripped over a bit of tree root that had so very conveniently placed itself directly in my path. I grabbed onto the closest thing to me, which happened to be Charlie's arm, but couldn't stop myself from falling. My feet slipped out from under me and I hit the mud with a sploosh. Wonderful word, sploosh. Anyways, Charlie was lucky enough to stay upright and pulled me to my feet.

"'Cause I'm just skilled like that," I muttered as I sat in the mire. I had a feeling this was not one of my most dignified moments.

"Up you go, then," he said.

I winced. "I'm so sorry!" I apologized. "Didn't mean to run into you like that."

"Nah, it's all right." Gotta love the British accents.

I wonder if Boone has an accent? Where's he from, anyways? It kind of bugged me that I couldn't bring his voice to mind until I realized that I'd only talked to him what, twice? Plenty of time to commit it to memory when we got back.

Jack looked amused. Jerk. Kate just seemed annoyed. Come to think of it, she always seemed kind of annoyed. All right, that's not really fair. She just seemed annoyed whenever I was around. Hm. It's all the same to me. I still couldn't remember what I could have sworn was on the tip of my memory when I first met her, though. Maybe that was what was bothering her. Maybe she realized that I'd seen something. But seen what? That's the question.

We continued on in silence, no change there. No one had said anything for quite a while. My little mishap served as the only break in the quiet. Honestly, I didn't really mind. I didn't even mind Jack laughing at me. I smirked at the memory. I probably looked pretty ridiculous slipping in the mud and sprawled on the forest floor.

That's when we reached the plane. The other part of the plane, that is, the part that we were looking for. I wasn't really sure what part that was, air travel is all Greek to me. I can tell the head from the tail, and that's about it. Upon closer examination as we drew nearer, I figured that it must be the cockpit, which would make sense if…yeah. Okay. I guess I'm a little slow. The pieces all just fell together in my head. If the passengers (aka me and everyone else) were in one part, and another part fell off, and then we crashed, and okay, I'm confused again. But whatever. I have a habit of doing that to myself.

Anyways, it was just sort of sitting there. There was a rather ominous feel about the whole plays. Suddenly I really, truly, seriously did not want to be there. I wanted to be as far from there as possible. I felt so small. It's like, I don't want to see dead people, I'm too young to see dead people, please please please don't let there be any dead people.

I was slightly comforted by the fact that none of the others seemed particularly jovial either. Actually, they looked more on the apprehensive side. Or maybe dreading. Dread fit, too. I probably had an identical expression on my own face. Except that when I glanced over at Charlie, there was a look of determination set on his face, and I remembered part of the reason I'd come in the first place, aka find out what he was up to.

"Well, let's do this," Jack said after a moment's hesitation.

He started off towards the wreckage, and Kate followed, though she seemed about as keen on the idea as I was – in other words, not too thrilled. Resigned, that's another good word. This was turning out to be a word day.

I could practically hear eerie music start to play as we approached what I now guessed to be the cockpit, but I could be wrong. I held my breath as Jack ducked inside and let out a short sigh of relief when nothing happened. Not sure exactly what I thought would happen, since it was probably more dangerous outside than in, but whatever.

Inside, on the other hand, was a mess. Oxygen dealies hung down above the topsy-turvy seats. For a second I wasn't sure whether or not we were right side up. Well, not us, but the plane. Actually, considering the seating, maybe it wasn't the cockpit after all. I don't even know.

"Let's get this trans…trans…"

"Transceiver," Jack finished the word.

"Yeah, transceiver thing, and then get out of here," Charlie suggested.

Sounded like a brilliant idea to me.

Jack hoisted himself along the seats and past a body…

…Oh my gosh there was a body. I felt sick.

"Jack!" I croaked.

"What is it?" he asked and turned around, no doubt to see even in this poor lighting that my face was as white as a sheet.

"Uh, I think I'm going to, uh, stay outside, okay? I'll like, watch the entrance, yell if anyone's coming."

"All right, sounds good."

I didn't even look at the Kate and Charlie before ducking back outside. Who cares what Charlie was up to, who cares what Kate was trying to hide. Surely there had to be an easier way of finding it out. At the moment, all I needed was air. Fresh air. I took in deep gulps of it, only to realize that the stench of bodies and who knows what else had pervaded into the air outside the plane wreckage. I don't know how I missed it as we got closer. Just lucky, I guess.

It didn't really matter. I huddled on the ground, hoping to stay out of sight of anything out there and praying that nothing was going to happen to any of us. I just wanted to get back to camp safely. I didn't want to die. I really, really, really didn't want to die. My family would never know. My friends would never know. I had a feeling some people didn't really care that I had even disappeared, let alone if I died out here.

What a time to feel homesick, right? In the rain and the muck and the death, and I was thinking of home. I don't know, maybe that makes sense. I guess it does after all. I wanted to see my parents, my brother, my friends. Since those options didn't even make it onto the agenda at the moment, I'd settle for getting back and seeing Boone. Maybe he would understand.

* * *

**Hope you liked it! Thanks for reading! :)**


	7. Yikes!

**Author's Note: I am so sorry, my dear readers, I have failed you. It's been what, over half a year since I updated last? I apologize profusely. Life's been pretty crazy for…well, pretty much that whole time period. Still is. Maybe not as crazy as Em's is, but crazy nonetheless. Anyways, muzical, SoulmateSearching, and miflaw0119 especially, as well as anyone else who's put this fellow here on story alert, thanks muchly and I hope you're still interested in reading about Em's adventures. I can't promise I'll update soon even after this, but I really hope I can. Anyways, have a good read, and enjoy! **

**

* * *

**

**Yikes!**

A banging noise floated from around the wreckage, and I jumped up, repressing a scream. Two seconds later I was inside the plane and climbing along the sloping floor, dead bodies or no. I'd rather see a dead body than be one myself.

"Ohmygosh ohmygosh ohmygosh what was that I can't die don't let me die I'm too young to die what the HECK was that noise?" I gibbered, my voice rising at the end of the sentence.

"You're going to die if you don't stop shouting," Kate hissed at me.

I decided to take that as a realistic possibility that yelling would incur the beastie's wrath rather than that Kate was threatening to murder me if I didn't shut up. I looked up to see Jack turn around and look down at me from the top of the slope with a fire extinguisher in his hand. He appeared to have been in midswing, aiming at the locked door in front of him.

Oh. That's where the sound was coming from. I stood there sheepishly, feeling like a fool. So much for not loosing my cool. I couldn't help it that my nerves were fried.

"Er, go ahead," I nodded. "I'll just, uh, stay in here with you guys." I hoisted myself up a ways, staying as far away as I could from the body. I did my best to avoid looking at it.

Jack resumed his swinging. And Kate thought that my yelling was loud. Jack's pounding could wake the dead. Er, not literally. I hope.

Suddenly the door crashed open and a shape shot out, flying straight towards me. I muffled a scream and dropped to the floor. The body continued down the incline and fell outside.

"You okay?" Jack asked, out of breath and shaken by the occurrence.

"Yeah," Kate gasped an affirmative. Her eyes were wild, and she looked as terrified as I felt. "You?"

"Yeah," he nodded.

"I'm fine," Charlie broke in. For all Kate and Jack cared, they could have been the only two there. "Charlie's fine, by the way." He continued and scrambled to his feet. "Okay." He crossed the aisle over to where I sat shuddering on the floor. "You all right?" he asked.

I nodded shakily. "I-I-I-I th-th-think s-s-s-so," I stuttered.

He offered a hand and pulled me up. My legs wobbled and I steadied myself, gripping the seat in front of me. If I thought the plane crash itself was bad, this was even worse. Now there was suspense made the immediate danger even more horrific.

Kate began to pull herself upwards towards where Jack stood.

"Hey, you don't have to come up here," he told her.

"No, I'm good," she insisted. Her frantic look downwards betrayed her terror. I couldn't help but respect her for it. She was plowing through. Kind of reminded me of myself, in a sense. Except that I was beyond the point of freaked out and my legs felt like jelly and I could barely keep myself standing.

"Come on, get a grip," I admonished myself under my breath. "Just pretend this is all a dream, just a dream, none of this is really happening, it's just a nightmare and…" Yeah, that was so totally not going to work. And Jack's whole little five-seconds-of-sheer-terror-and-then-get-over-it theory? No way was I going to try that.

Charlie looked at me curiously. "What?"

I shook my head, both to clear it and answer a negative. "Just talking to myself." I took a deep breath and looked up to see Jack and Kate disappear through the doorway. "Let's stay here."

Up above, Kate shrieked. I just about lost it. "What's going on?" I cried.

"I don't know," Charlie answered. "Maybe I should go see…"

"Don't you DARE leave me here, buddy boy," I snapped hysterically, my voice high-pitched.

"All right, all right!" he answered. "Don't you want to know what's going on?"

Uh, no, actually all I really wanted was to be nice and safe back at the camp. At least, nice and safe as anyone _could_ be back at the camp. Right now, though, anything would have been better than here. I just wanted to get out of here. Everything was so cramped, the apprehension was terrible, and I was seriously about to become unhinged. Did I mention that I'm claustrophobic? Well, to borrow a line from Star Wars and Toy Story, the walls really did seem like they were closing in.

"I need to check something out. I'll be right back, I promise." He headed up in the direction of the other two but then disappeared through a different door.

Soon after, Kate appeared in the doorway. "Charlie?" she called. He burst out of the restroom to the right. She seemed to startle him just as much as he startled her.

She looked at him strangely. "What were you doing in the bathroom?"

Come to think of it, that was a good question, though there could just as easily be a logical explanation. I mean, come on. It's a bathroom. What do people usually do in there? On the other hand, that did seem to be where he was headed when the plane crashed…

My curiosity returned, distracting me from at least some of my worries, and I perked up, straining to hear his answer.

He feigned a lack of comprehension. "What?"

And then there was a noise. Another noise. I could tell it wasn't Jack this time; it was too big for that. Why did all these unidentifiable noises have to persist? They should cease and desist and go off and die in a hole so that people like me wouldn't freak out and have heart attacks.

I scrambled up to join the others (and dang it takes some serious arm power to pull yourself up the aisle of a tilted plane and using the seats as handholds!) as they looked around, trying to find the source.

"The hell was that?" a voice that I didn't recognize asked. I reached the top to find the pilot sitting up there next to Jack. That was new.

Jack leaned towards Kate. "Hey," he whispered urgently. He reached out to pull her up, and Charlie helped support her as she grabbed Jack's hand. I, meanwhile, had a death grip on the seat in front of me. Kate made it up to Jack and he held her to keep her from falling back down. I could see a potential romance developing there.

Provided we made it out alive, that is.

"It's right outside!" Kate sounded frantic.

"What's right outside?" the pilot asked.

"Shh!" Jack shushed him.

The noise continued. Now it sounded kind of…slithery. And hissish. Like if you could hear a snake breathing, that's what it would sound like. A really, really big snake. Add that to a growling and what sounded like giant footfalls. I really hoped it wasn't a stomach that was growling. That would be a pretty huge stomach. And where there's a huge stomach, there's even huger teeth…

A shadow moved outside. Kate seemed like she was about to cry. I slipped and Charlie grabbed my arm, almost yanking it out of it's socket, but that was better than being beastie chow. Jack moved over to the clouded window and looked outside. He scrubbed the window, trying to be able to see better, and the pilot moved to join him. Kate took the pilot's spot and tried to peer out the other window. I personally thought that it would be best to stay as far away from the windows as possible. That's when the pilot decided to be a smart one and not only look out the window but climb out of it as well. Next thing I knew, he was screaming and something pulled him out headfirst. Blood spattered the window. I stared on in shock.

"What the hell just happened!" Charlie exclaimed hoarsely.

The plane shook. Something was tossing it around. Jack grabbed for the transceiver, but it slid from his grasp. As soon as it stopped, seemingly right side up instead of slanted, now, everyone moved. Fast. Well, except for Jack.

"Jack, come on!" Kate screamed as he reached for the device again.

"Just leave it!" Charlie yelled.

Fortunately, he was able to grasp it. Jack, that is. He propelled himself out lightning quick and the rest of us tumbled after him. Why we were trying to get out to where whatever it was out there was, I have no idea. Apparently it seemed safer to have no shelter to protect us even slightly? Though granted, it could squash us like a bug if we stayed inside of there.

Kate took off running back into the forest as soon as her feet hit the ground. Great fight or flight instinct there. I chose flight as well. Yeah, we all did. Can't really fight something you can't see, can you? Even if it is really freaking big. Why would anyone want to, anyways?

We ran. The noise followed us. It pervaded the air around us. It seemed to be everywhere.

That's when Charlie slipped.

"Charlie!" I screamed as I caught up to him. Needless to say, I was the furthest back. Charlie's foot was caught in some sort of root or fallen branch. Jack finally realized that we weren't there and after a moment's hesitation, he turned back, leaving Kate to run ahead on her own. Charlie looked around frantically as he tried to kick his foot free, and I tried to disentangle it. Jack practically tackled him and worked on pulling him loose.

"Em, go!" he commanded.

Yeah, 'cause I was totally going to leave Charlie there when he'd helped me out so many times already.

"I can't…!"

"You're not doing any good here! Get yourself out of here!"

I stood, torn. The noise rumbled, followed by an eerie silence. Up ahead, Kate screamed frantically.

"Jack!"

Thunder crashed. Moments later Charlie's foot came loose and we ran to catch up. Kate turned right as Charlie came up behind her and screamed, bowling him over. He went down with a crash, yelling himself. I swear, those two have a habit of scaring the living daylights out of each other. Good heavens.

"Where the hell is Jack?" she demanded.

I looked around. Good question. I could have sworn he was with us just a second ago.

"I don't know!" Charlie answered.

"Did you see him?"

"Yeah, he pulled me out!"

"Where is he?"

"I don't know!"

"How can you not know?"

"We got separated! Look, I fell down, he came back for me, that thing was…" He mimed a claw with his hand.

"Are you serious?" she asked quietly.

"No! No. But it was right there, we were dead! I was, and then Jack came back and he pulled me up! I don't know where he is!" Charlie protested.

Kate looked up at the sky, releasing Charlie. Well, sort of. She still had him pinned to the ground. It would have been an awkward moment if it weren't a life and death situation.

"We have to go back for him," she said decidedly.

"Go back? There?" Charlie squeaked. He pulled himself as upright as he could and spoke to her as if she were slightly dim. "Kate, there's a gargantuan quality about this thing."

I couldn't help but smirk at his choice of phrasing. Hey, laugh when you can, right?

She got up swiftly. "Then don't come."

Alllllllll righty then. Way to keep up morale. Ditching your companions is not the best way to go when you're stuck all alone. Then you're really alone. I hoped we would find Jack quickly.

Charlie fell back and rolled his eyes before jumping up to follow her. "Hey!"

"Whoa, dude, wait for me!" I exclaimed and ran after them.

We'd better not die.

* * *

**Well, I hope you liked it. Hopefully the next chapter will have a bit more outside storyline to it. I kind of felt like I was just putting the episode into words instead of adding other bits, if you know what I mean. But if you all don't mind, it's all good! Anyways, hope to update soon. I might even start on the next chapter after I post this buddy right here. Thanks for reading! :) **


End file.
